Arizona Group Shares Its Success By Managing Other Optical Locations Throughout the State

By John Sailer

PHOENIX, Ariz.—Starting in October,
Barnet Dulaney Perkins (BDP), a successful regional optical group with 14 locations throughout Arizona, branched out into managing the optical dispensaries of other eyecare professionals throughout the state. Operated under the auspices of BDP's management group, MMRG, "We're basically running the day-to-day operations for them, so that all they're doing is just focusing on their patients, and taking care of their needs," said Debbie Bacon, BDP's director of optical services.

New Hires: Finding Them With New Tools and Techniques

Jay Binkowitz and Evan Kestenbaum, MBA, dba Contributors

Hiring new employees can be one of the most frustrating or rewarding parts of being in business. Ten years ago, we would place ads in the newspaper, review many resumes, and call the people who we "felt" had the right experience for our practice. There weren't many tools available and accessible to our business.

When Bonuses Work... and When They Don’t

Mark Wright, OD, FCOVD

One of the issues that always comes up is should I bonus my staff, or should I just pay a flat salary. There are two different sides to this argument. One side says just pay a healthy wage and they'll do everything that you ask of them. The other side, which is the side I tend to think about more, is that we all work on bonuses. We all work on incentives. We all work to be rewarded for what we're doing, and especially when we do extra. So therefore let's drill into this a little deeper.

U.S. Optical Retail Market Increases 3.7 Percent in 2013

The total U.S. optical retail market grew by 3.7 percent for the 12-month period ending December 2013, when compared with the same period in 2012, according to The Vision Council’s most recent VisionWatch report. The market grew from $30,287 million to $31,415 million, as indicated by the graph. Among the categories measured, lenses grew 5.2 percent from $10,587 million to $11,138 million, frames increased 2.7 percent from $8,639 million to $8,871, and contact lenses sales went up 8 percent from $3,304 million to $3,569 million.

Send us news about your mid-size regional optical chain or optometric group, provide us with subjects and/or questions for a future dba q&a or let us know what topics you'd like to see covered. Contact dba's Editor John Sailer at jsailer@jobson.com.